Saga of Cuckoo

Farthest Star
First edition
Author	Frederik Pohl Jack Williamson
Cover artist	Philip Perlman
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Saga of Cuckoo
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Ballantine Books
Publication date	1975
Pages	246
ISBN	0-345-24330-7
OCLC	073857
Followed by	Wall Around a Star

Wall Around a Star {{cite web|title=Wall Around a Star|url=http://www.worldcat.org/title/wall-around-a-star/oclc/9184254&referer=brief_results|work=OCLC Worldcat|accessdate=1 April 2014}}</ref>">
1st edition
Author	Frederik Pohl Jack Williamson
Cover artist	David B. Mattingly
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Saga of Cuckoo
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Del Rey Books
Publication date	January 12, 1983
Pages	275
Awards	1984 Locus Award - Best SF Novel (21st place)
ISBN	0-345-28995-1
OCLC	9184254 [1]
Preceded by	Farthest Star

The Saga of Cuckoo is a series of science fiction novels by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson. It consists of two novels:

Farthest Star (1975)

"Farthest Star" was published by Ballantine Books in 1975,^[2] as a fix-up of the 1973 novella "Doomship" and the 1974 serial "The Org's Egg".^[3]

Plot

Ben Charles Pertin, an engineer, is selected to be humanity's representative in a multi-race mission to reach "Object Lambda", a mysterious object traveling towards the galaxy at 1/6th lightspeed. Since the object is still approaching, Ben and the others are transported to the probeship Aurora by a matter duplication transporter. While the original goes on with his life, the duplicate (Ben James) and his Companion Doc Chimp, work with the rest of the beings to construct a faster drone to get a transporter in orbit of the object, racing against time as the ionizing radiation from the ship's fusion drive is slowly killing them. After a struggle, the drone is successfully launched, killing all on board.

The drone performs as planned and an orbiting habitat called Cuckoo Station is constructed. A new duplicate arrives, Ben Linc.

Wall Around a Star (1983)

Wall Around a Star was published by Del Rey Books on January 12, 1983, with an ISBN of 0-345-28995-1. The cover art for the 1983 edition was done by David Mattingly.^[4]

Plot

In this novel linguist Jen Babylon is called on to translate alien records which may explain the nature of "Cuckoo", a sphere built around a star, and thus save the galaxy.^[5]

Themes

The series explores several themes. The most used is the notion of an interstellar teleporter that leaves the original being behind and sends only a duplicate. When a person is duplicated, the original can just pass out of the machine without a second thought. However, the duplicate arrives at the destination with the same state of mind as the original, and thus is shocked to realize that he or she is now stranded far from home. Another is the fact that the copies can be 'edited' at destination.

References

↑ "Wall Around a Star". OCLC Worldcat. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
↑ http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/frederik-pohl/farthest-star.htm
↑ http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3512
↑ "Book Information: Wall Around a Star". Internet Book List. Retrieved 2013-05-14.
↑ Nickerson, Susan L (1983-02-15). "Wall Around a Star (book)". Library Journal. 108 (4): 415. |access-date= requires |url= (help)

Pohl, Fred; Jack Williamson (1983). The Saga of Cuckoo (SFBC ed.). Nelson Doubleday. OCLC 9879683.

Works by Frederik Pohl

Undersea Trilogy (with Jack Williamson)	Undersea Quest (1954) Undersea Fleet (1956) Undersea City (1958)

Heechee series	Gateway (1977) Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (1980) Heechee Rendezvous (1984) Annals of the Heechee (1987) The Gateway Trip (1990) The Boy Who Would Live Forever: A Novel of Gateway (2004)

Eschaton trilogy	The Other End of Time (1996) The Siege of Eternity (1997) The Far Shore of Time (1999)

Mars series	Man Plus (1976) Mars Plus (1994) (with Thomas T. Thomas)

Saga of Cuckoo (with Jack Williamson)	Farthest Star (1975) Wall Around A Star (1983)

Starchild Trilogy (with Jack Williamson)	The Reefs of Space (1964) Starchild (1965) Rogue Star (1969)

Space Merchants series	The Space Merchants (1953) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) The Merchants' War (1984) Venus, Inc. (1985 Omnibus)

Other	Search the Sky (1954) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) Gladiator-At-Law (1955) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) Preferred Risk (1955) (with Lester Del Rey) Slave Ship (1956) Presidential Year (1958) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) Wolfbane (1959) (with Cyril M. Kornbluth) Drunkard's Walk (1960) A Plague of Pythons (1964) The Age of the Pussyfoot (1965) Day Million (1970) Jem (1979) The Cool War (1981) Syzygy (1981) Starburst (1982) The Years of the City (1984) Black Star Rising (1985) The Coming of the Quantum Cats (1986) Terror (1986) Chernobyl (1987) Land's End (1988) (with Jack Williamson) The Day the Martians Came (1988) Narabedla Ltd. (1988) Homegoing (1989) The World at the End of Time (1990) Outnumbering the Dead (1990) Stopping at Slowyear (1991) The Singers of Time (1991) (with Jack Williamson) Mining the Oort (1992) The Voices of Heaven (1994) O Pioneer! (1998) The Last Theorem (2008) (with Arthur C. Clarke) All the Lives He Led (2011)

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